Trans male New Yorker found guilty of ‘hate crime’ after attacking Asian man with hammer on subway

Jeffers was found guilty by a jury of attempted assault, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, and aggravated assault. The jury deliberated for less than a day before delivering the verdict. Jeffers will be sentenced at a later date, according to the Daily Mail.

Jeffers was arrested and charged with numerous hate crimes in March of last year after the attack on 29-year-old Chinese man with a hammer at the 14th Street Union Square subway station. Prosecutors argued that Jeffers attacked the man with "little to no provocation."

Jeffers was seen on camera smashing the victim in the head with a hammer moments after the two bumped into one another.

Police stated that Jeffers has a criminal history spanning back to 2007 which includes 47 arrests and charges of prostitution, public lewdness, theft of service, grand larceny, and drug possession.

Jeffers was released from prison in June of 2021 after serving six years for second-degree robbery. Just one week after the release, Jeffers was arrested again for petit larceny.

While Jeffers has yet to be sentenced, assault in the first degree is a Class C felony that carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

Describing the attack, the victim said, "He ended up bumping into me. And then after that, he turned around trying to get into my face pretty aggressively, and in that kind of process he ended up stepping on me. He stepped on my foot and then after that, he took out the hammer and then I was hit on the head."

The victim told the New York Post at the time, “We’re trying to live our lives as well as we can, you know, and it’s just unfortunate that we have to face all these adversities, along with just all the struggles in life. It’s just unnecessary conflict and it sucks."

“I want to get him locked up because he was pretty aggressive,” he said. “He was looking for trouble.”